


Travelin' Soldier

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky Barnes - Freeform, Fluff, Letters, Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Captain America: The First Avenger, Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Stucky - Freeform, beginning of relationship, steve rogers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 17:36:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6866434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I ain’t got no one to send a letter to. And I ain’t tryin’ to make this sound weird or nothin’ since we just met but, uh, if it were okay, would you mind if I sent one back here to you?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Travelin' Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of the characters used in this story and am not affiliated with Marvel Studios in any way. 
> 
> ALSO; I am not affiliated with the United States military in any way, so if any of the military related content is incorrect in any way please let me know so I can fix it. Same goes with any spelling or grammar errors.

Bucky can’t exactly say that he was upset he wouldn’t be shipping out to England in the morning. Going to war was never what he had wanted, but he had since told his boss down at the dock that he would be overseas for at least a year, maybe more. They found someone else to cover Bucky’s position and left him without a job himself. So the morning before he was supposed to leave for London, he spent the few hours he would have spent saying his goodbyes, looking for a job. 

He walked the streets of Brooklyn until almost midnight, when he decided to give up for the day and head back to his apartment. Bucky was discouraged, because he assumed getting a job would be easy to do with most of the men in New York now residing somewhere in Europe for the time being, but he was proven wrong when most of the potential employers he talked to all said the same thing to him.

“What would I need of a man who broke his arm?”

“How are you supposed to work if you can’t even lift a twenty pound box?”

“Get outta’ here and come back when ya’ ain’t a cripple no more.”

During basic training, only three days ago, Bucky had been in the number one recruit in his division. Most accurate shot with a gun, best in hand-to-hand combat, and was in the process of training to be a sniper. But, he had gone a little over board when the Colonel told the recruits to hit the obstacle course one final time and told them that whoever finished first, was going to be rewarded (though they never mentioned what that reward may be). Bucky was a shoe-in, and was only two obstacles away from finishing first, when he slipped off a climbing wall and landed on his left arm. He broke it in two places, and was dismissed from the army and released to go back home. 

Bucky woke the next morning at 5:30 in the morning, determined to get ready for the day and get a head start to finding a job. Hopefully, he could find something, anything, which would at least allow him to pay rent for the next few months while his arm healed completely. 

He found himself at a diner that was just around the corner from his apartment. Before being enlisted, Bucky would go there on days he knew he had a lot going on to help him get an early start with some coffee. By no means was it the best coffee he’s ever had, but something about that diner always made Bucky relax and have a clear focus on what was to come of that day.

It was 6 am by the time he made it to the diner. He sat down at one of the booths in the back and waited as a young woman with cherry red hair came by with a fresh pot of coffee. When she reached Bucky’s booth, she started giggling, which made Bucky smile. He missed the reassurance of the charm he had on people, making them swoon over him and his good looks. The aroma of the coffee filled the air around him. Bucky very rarely drank the stuff, but when he did, it made his senses come alive and gave him a jolt of energy he desperately needed after having only five hours of sleep the night before. He asked the waitress for today’s newspaper before she left his side and she replied with a faint, “o’ course, sir,” before fetching it for him.

Bucky was halfway finished with his cup when he heard the door at the front of the diner open, and a scrawny man, no more than 5’4”, came stumbling in and finding himself an open booth. He was dressed in khakis that hung off him, and a tan button-up shirt that was probably a small but still fit him like a large. The man looked to be nearly fourteen, and it wasn’t until Bucky noticed the suitcase with tags that looked eerily familiar did he realize that this kid-man-was going to basic training. From across the diner, Bucky could read that the blonde’s tags read “New Jersey” on them, and if he had to guess, that man would be heading out of here any day now. 

He studied the blonde. He was awkward, especially when the waitress came over and asked him what he would like. “Oh, uh, coffee, I guess,” was all he was able to manage. The man was nervous, and Bucky knew that kind of nervous. It was ‘I’m about to give my life to the army nervous.’

Bucky picked up his coffee and took a sip, “When do you head out?” He asked the man.

The blonde’s head shot up, almost startled. “Me?” He questioned, before realizing that he was the only one who that question could have possibly been addressed to. “Uh ,sorry. Ten, I think.”

Bucky smiled, “Aren’t you a little early then, soldier?” He didn’t want to sound rude, but it was four hours until the man needed to be at the bus station, and he was curious as to why he was dressed and ready to go so early.

“Yeah, ‘suppose, just couldn’t sleep last night, that’s all,” he looked down to the plate of food the waitress had just brought over to him.

“Too scared?” Bucky asks.

With a grin, the man says, “Too anxious,” with complete confidence. That was the first time that Bucky had heard him say anything with ease.

“What unit?” 

The man took a quick glance at Bucky and then looked back down, “They haven’t decided yet,” 

Bucky sees that he isn’t telling the complete truth, probably because they’ve just met. So naturally, Bucky decides that he needs to make this a more comfortable situation in order to ease his curiosity. And, the man seems like he could use a friend when he’s a bit on the nervous side of things. So Bucky tucks his newspaper into his left underarm, and picks up his coffee with his right hand, and moves towards the blonde man’s booth to sit down. 

He stops before scooting in, a silent plea to ask if he may sit down, and the other man gives a small wave towards the opposite seat letting Bucky know he may sit down.

After sitting down his items, Bucky reaches his arm out and offers it to the other man, “James Barnes, but everyone calls me Bucky.” 

“Steve Rogers.”

The two shake hands and Bucky proceeds to ask him a multitude of questions, mostly military related. Steve enlisted because he feels it’s the right thing to do, he’s enlisted five times, and he has grown up this small. Steve has asthma, and is sick regularly, and now that Bucky is closer to him, he can see a nice shiner on the corner of Steve’s left eye. He asks Steve where he got it. Steve tells him that he got into a fight yesterday at the movies, and that the guy was nearly three times Steve’s size and that he had him on the ropes. Bucky can’t help but feel sorry for the guy and asks what he think he’s doing by getting himself into the army if he knows there will be countless guys who are just as big as that one.

“I don’t like bullies, I don’t care where they’re from.” Steve says this with such reassurance, that it begins to warm Bucky’s heart. It takes him a few minutes but he decides that he thinks Steve’s a good guy, and clearly has a good heart that the army will benefit from, even if the physical aspect of things won’t be as strong.

Bucky is in the process of telling Steve about what his military experience, or lack of, and realizes that it was almost 9:30 and Bucky has spent almost his entire morning talking to Steve Rogers. What surprises him, though, is that he decides he would rather keep talking to Steve than go out looking for a job he probably won’t get in the first place. But since it’s 9:30, that also means Steve will be leaving soon to catch his bus, and Bucky’s chances of seeing him again will be very limited. War was a nasty thing to be involved in, and not everyone always comes back from it.

Just before Bucky is about to let Steve know he needs to be heading out soon, Steve starts rambling, “So, uh, I know this is probably gonna sound weird, and, uh, but-“ he shakes his head almost like he’s going to disregard what he was saying. Bucky sits and waits, not wanting to make Steve feel uncomfortable, though he is hoping Steve will just say what he’s wanting to.

“I ain’t got no one to send a letter to. And I ain’t tryin’ to make this sound weird or nothin’ since we just met but, uh, if it were okay, would you mind if I sent one back here to you?” Steve looked down when he finished asking that. 

Three and a half hours of talking, and Bucky had completely forgotten to ask Steve about his family. Either that, or Steve was avoiding it. But regardless, Steve felt confident enough to ask Bucky if he could write him a letter while he was away.

“’course, you punk, write as many letters as you want. I would be honored.” He watches as a smile crosses Steve’s face. Steve scrambles for a napkin and a pen and hands it to Bucky to write his address down.

“Thank you, Buck, it means a lot. I know we just met an’ all, but-“

Steve was cut off by Bucky, “Steve it don’t matter how long we’ve known each other, because I don’t care. I ain’t got many friends either and I would love to be the person you keep in touch with. Seriously thought, you’re a punk,” he says as he stands up with Steve to head to the door. Down the street a ways, they can both see Steve’s bus and know it’s time to part. 

“Good luck, Stevie, and don’t do anything stupid,” Bucky calls out as Steve walks away from him. The blonde looks back and laughs as he has to move the stray hairs away from his face to see Bucky.

“How can I?” Steve asks, “you’re keeping all the stupid with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever Stucky fic (or any fic really) and the first work I've ever published for the public so please have mercy on my soul. I hope you guys like and that it doesn't suck terribly. :)


End file.
